We recently learned the median pay package for a chief executive officer rose to eight figures for the first time last year. CEO pay is now 257 times that of the average worker. That’s a startling uptick from four years ago, when the same pay ratio was 181 to 1.

To really get some perspective, one needs to go back to America’s halcyon heyday, when “made in Japan” was still a joke. In the 1960s, the big boss made just 40 times the average worker’s pay.

So maybe economic guru Thomas Piketty is right. His book, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” parses hundreds of years of tax records to arrive at the disturbing conclusion that financial inequality is in a full-out gallop, with the relative wealth of the top 1 percent in America approaching that of the top 1 percent in 18th century France. (Right before they got their heads chopped off.)

What to do about the problem is relatively simple. Tax policy can be rewritten to look more like it did in 1960 or even 1990. Schools can be improved. Access to college and technical schools can be made available to all to ensure that more get a piece of the pie instead of an occasional sniff.

The more difficult question is moral. Should we do anything at all? Turns out America’s faith traditions have much to say about financial inequality, and not all of its comments are kind.

Just listen to these words from Jesus’ kid brother and head of the first church in Jerusalem: “And now you rich people, listen to me! Weep and wail over the miseries that are coming upon you. ... You have not paid fair wages to the men who work in your fields. Listen to their complaints! The cries of those who gather in your crops have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. Your life here on earth has been full of luxury and pleasure. But you have made yourself fat for the day of slaughter.” (James 4:1-6) James’ more famous older brother once told his followers that they would have to renounce all their earthly possessions. (Luke 14:33).

These two came by their views honestly. The Jewish tradition in which they were raised worshiped a God who identified with the poor and mandated laws that forbade charging interest for loans and forgave all outstanding debts every seventh year. More radical still was the year of “Jubilee” in which all land was returned to its original owners.

Rabbi David Saperstein explains our duties to the less fortunate: “God’s justice always accounts for the most vulnerable of God’s children, including those who didn’t choose the right schools or didn’t pick the well-off right parents. Am I my brother’s keeper? You bet ... you are.”

The Quran is filled with similar admonitions about the dangers of greed and the virtues of charity. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, one of America’s most influential Muslim clerics, says the failure to seek a more inclusive economic vision is “disobeying God.”

Despite these growing disparities, there is reason to hope. Two-hundred-fifty of the world’s richest individuals — accounting for a third of total wealth — gathered in London in May to discuss how to make capitalism more “inclusive.” Smart folks.

History teaches that when financial inequity reaches a tipping point, someone turns the game board over and demands a re-deal. Democratic capitalism might have been the world’s greatest engine for widespread economic prosperity, but the greed of a few is threatening the system for everyone. Those lucky few do well to remember the homespun wisdom of my former law partner. Pigs get fat; hogs get slaughtered.

Oliver Thomas is a minister, attorney and member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors.